Magpies nesting bothered by crows (1 Viewer)

[Alan]

We have a tall fir tree at the bottom of our garden and have been watching a pair of magpies building their nest. Every day a crow or pair of crows turn up and harass the magpies quite deliberately. Their usual method is to land next to or even on the nest, needless to say the magpies become very agitated and swoop and dive at the crows. The crows make visits several times during the day. I noticed in a post by Steve that he had seen similar behaviour.
What is the purpose of the crow's taunting? Is this behaviour common? Are the magpies likely to succeed in their efforts to raise a new family?
Thanks, Alan

 

[LezH]

Hi Alan.

Interesting post.

You might like to check out my post at Bird Forums > ALL THINGS BIRDING > Your Birding Day > Redeeming Features.

This crow v magpie rivalry happens every year at this time in Lincoln's Inn. Lots of posturing and raucous yelling, the all-blacks against the blue and whites - just like at a Chelsea match.

I think it's just that they're both crow family with similar territory/food requirements plus they're noisy, aggressive so and so's to boot. Many times in the past, especially when my dog was younger and strayed onto their patch, the crows particularly would dive-bomb us, missing Franklin by millimetres and parting my hair (so that's how long ago it was!).

As this is an annual event, I guess they get it sorted in their own way and establish their boundaries to their mutual reluctant satisfaction. When their young leave the nest you could well be in for an increased decibel count!

Lez

 

[winkle]

I have similar, but it's Magpies and Mistle Thrushes.

Very noisy and goes on for ages.

 

[steve_nova]

Hi Alan.
I think you are refering to my post Gardening diversions?
I have observed this behaviour and agree with Lez.
As a slight aside to this, when I was a lot younger, the family cat was sitting under a Prunus 'Kanzan' tree in our garden. A Magpie sitting up the tree was tearing small twigs off the tree and dropping them onto the cat (at least that is what it looked like)
He seemed to just delight in tormenting the cat who was now showing his frustration with mournful yowls and strange jaw juddering.
I think most members of the Crow family have this ability to taunt and it seems to be associated with play/learning.

 

[Alan]

Thanks for the interesting replies to my original post. Over the past few days the crows have upped the stakes in the battle with the magpies. In one incident two crows arrived, one appearing to act as a guard while the other attacked the nest pulling out a large twig and waving it around in triumph before dropping it. The magpies were of course very upset and attacked the crow, one flying into the nest causing further damage. The magpies are resilient and repaired the nest. Today a single crow flew in and landed on top of the nest, jumping around on it and tugging at the structure causing some minor damage. Once again the magpies repaired the damage.
Alan
Note: this replaces a post lost during site maintenance

 

[Alan]

Those of you who followed this thread may be interested in the final outcome. Once the magpies had eggs in the nest the visits from the crows became more frequent and aggressive. Over Easter the battle reached a crescendo with almost continuous harassment from the crows. The magpies could not take any more and deserted the nest. As soon as the magpies had gone, the visits from the crows ended. The nest has now almost disintegrated. In a way I feel sorry for the magpies, but all the other garden birds seem much happier now and I suspect with good reason. The sky is a safer place for the next generation of blackbirds, robins and other visitors to my garden.
Alan

 

[alanhill]

A fascinating story. So it seems that the the crows were attacking the magpies on behalf of all the other birds! So now we know that birds (well crows anyway) can be altruistic!

Alan Hill

 

[alan_rymer]

Nah
The crows were in competition.
There is one at the lake I fish and walk around. Whenever the Great Crested Grebe lays eggs and leaves the nest unattended, it lands in the tree the nest is anchored to, climbs down and eats the eggs. It happened 3 times last year and once this year so far.